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Simon Schama

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Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox academic Sir Simon Michael Schama Template:Postnominals (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history.<ref name="snowman"/> He is a professor of history and art history at Columbia University.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Schama first came to public attention with his history of the French Revolution titled Citizens, published in 1989.<ref name="snowman"/> He is also known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC television documentary series A History of Britain (2000–2002),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as other documentary series such as The American Future: A History (2008) and The Story of the Jews (2013).

Schama was knighted in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and educationEdit

Schama was born on 13 February 1945 in Marylebone, London.<ref name="snowman">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="JC background 1">Template:Cite news</ref> His mother, Gertie (née Steinberg), was from an Ashkenazi Lithuanian Jewish family (from Kaunas, present-day Lithuania), and his father, Arthur Schama, was of Sephardi Jewish background (from Smyrna, present-day İzmir in Turkey), later moving through Moldova and Romania.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the mid-1940s, the family moved to Southend-on-Sea in Essex before moving back to London. In 1956, Schama won a scholarship to the private Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Cricklewood (from 1961 Elstree, Hertfordshire). He then studied history at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was taught by John H. Plumb. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Starred First in 1966.<ref name="snowman"/>

CareerEdit

From 1966 to 1976, Schama was a fellow and director of studies in history at Christ's College, Cambridge.<ref name="WW 24">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He then moved to Oxford University, where he was elected a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford in 1976,<ref name="WW 24" /> specialising in the French Revolution.<ref name="snowman"/> He also worked at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris.

At this time, Schama wrote his first book, Patriots and Liberators, which won the Wolfson History Prize. The book was originally intended as a study of the French Revolution, but as published in 1977, it focused on the effect of the Patriottentijd revolution of the 1780s in the Netherlands, and its aftermath.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Schama's second book, Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel (1978), is a study of the Zionist aims of Edmond and James Rothschild.

In the United StatesEdit

In 1980, Schama took up a chair at Harvard University as Mellon Professor of History.<ref name="WW 24" /> His next book, The Embarrassment of Riches (1987), again focused on Dutch history.<ref name="TEOR publication 1">Daniel, M., and S. Steinberg. "Simon Schama." Publishers Weekly 238, No. 22 (17 May 1991): 46. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 30 April 2009).</ref> Schama interpreted the ambivalences that informed the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, held in balance between the conflicting imperatives, to live richly and with power, or to live a godly life. The iconographic evidence that Schama draws upon, in 317 illustrations, of emblems and propaganda that defined Dutch character, prefigured his expansion in the 1990s as a commentator on art and visual culture.<ref name="TEOR commentator 1">Adams, Julia; Stoler, Ann (November 1988). "The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, by Simon Schama" (review). Contemporary Sociology. 17.6: 760–62. "He provides a reading of cultural tints and social textures at a level of visual detail that is usually reserved for art history." {{#invoke:doi|main}}</ref> Template:External media Citizens (1989), written at speed to a publisher's commission, saw the publication of his long-awaited study of the French Revolution, and won the 1990 NCR Book Award. Its view that the violence of the Terror was inherent from the start of the Revolution has received serious negative criticism.<ref name="snowman"/><ref name="Citizens 1989 1">Notably in Timothy Tackett, "Interpreting the Terror" French Historical Studies 24.4 (Autumn 2001:569–578); Tackett's view of swiftly evolving revolution in his prosopography of the deputies, Becoming a Revolutionary: The Deputies of the French National Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture, 1789–1790 (Princeton University Press) 1996, was not fundamentally at variance with Schama.</ref>

Schama appeared as an on-screen expert in Michael Wood's 1989 PBS series Art of the Western World ("Realms of Light: The Baroque") as a presenting art historian, commenting on paintings by Diego Velázquez, Rembrandt, and Johannes Vermeer.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In 1991, he published Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations),<ref name="Halttunen DC published 1">Template:Cite journal</ref> a relatively slender work of unusual structure and point-of-view in that it looked at two widely reported deaths a hundred years apart, that of British Army General James Wolfe in 1759 – and the famous 1770 painting depicting the event by Benjamin West – and that of George Parkman, murdered uncle of the better known 19th-century American historian Francis Parkman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Schama mooted some possible (invented) connections between the two cases, exploring the historian's inability "ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing the documentation", and speculatively bridging "the teasing gap separating a lived event and its subsequent narration." Not all readers absorbed the nuance of the title: it received a very mixed critical and academic reception. Traditional historians in particular denounced Schama's integration of fact and conjecture to produce a seamless narrative,<ref name="Windschuttle2000">Template:Cite book</ref> but later assessments took a more relaxed view of the experiment.<ref name="Toplin1996">Template:Cite book "a fascinating experiment in historical writing".</ref> It was an approach soon taken up by such historical writers as Peter Ackroyd, David Taylor, and Richard Holmes.<ref name="Byatt2000">Template:Cite book</ref>

Schama's next book, Landscape and Memory (1995), focused on the relationship between physical environment and folk memory, separating the components of landscape as wood, water and rock, enmeshed in the cultural consciousness of collective "memory" embodied in myths, which Schama finds to be expressed outwardly in ceremony and text. More personal and idiosyncratic than Dead Certainties, this book was more traditionally structured and better-defined in its approach. Despite mixed reviews, the book was a commercial success and won numerous prizes.<ref name="williams">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="NYT LAM 1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Plaudits came from the art world rather than from traditional academia. Schama became art critic for The New Yorker in 1995. He held the position for three years, dovetailing his regular column with professorial duties at Columbia University; a selection of his essays on art for the magazine, chosen by Schama himself, was published in 2005 under the title Hang Ups.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During this time, Schama also produced a lavishly illustrated Rembrandt's Eyes, another critical and commercial success. Despite the book's title, it contrasts the biographies of Rembrandt van Rijn and Peter Paul Rubens.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BBCEdit

Template:External media Schama returned to the UK in 2000, having been commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of television documentary programmes on British history as part of their Millennium celebrations, under the title A History of Britain. Schama wrote and presented the episodes himself, in a friendly and often jocular style with his highly characteristic delivery, and was rewarded with excellent reviews and unexpectedly high ratings. There has been, however, some irritation and criticism expressed by a group of historians about Schama's condensed recounting of the British Isles' history on this occasion, particularly by those specialising in the pre-Anglo-Saxon history of Insular Celtic civilisation.<ref name="HNN antidote 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Three series were made, totalling 15 episodes,<ref name="imdb AHOB 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="cooper"/> covering the complete span of British history up until 1965;<ref name="cooper">Cooper, Barbara Roisman. "A Wild Ride" Through A History of Britain With Simon Schama. British Heritage 23, no. 6 (November 2002): 48. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 30 April 2009)</ref> it went on to become one of the BBC's best-selling documentary series on DVD. Schama also wrote a trilogy of tie-in books for the show, which took the story up to the year 2000; there is some debate as to whether the books are the tie-in product for the TV series, or the other way around. The series also had some popularity in the United States when it was first shown on the History Channel.<ref name="cooper"/> Template:External media In 2001, Schama received a CBE. In 2003, he signed a new contract with the BBC and HarperCollins to produce three new books and two accompanying TV series. Worth £3 million (around US$5.3m), it represents the biggest advance deal ever for a TV historian. The first result of the deal was a book and TV show entitled Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> dealing in particular with the proclamation issued during the Revolutionary War by Lord Dunmore offering slaves from rebel plantations freedom in return for service to the crown.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2006, the BBC broadcast a new TV series, Simon Schama's Power of Art, which, with an accompanying book, was presented and written by Schama. It marks a return to art history for him, treating eight artists through eight key works: Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath, Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Rembrandt's The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat, J. M. W. Turner's The Slave Ship, Vincent van Gogh's Wheatfield with Crows, Picasso's Guernica and Mark Rothko's Seagram murals.<ref name="BBC POA 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was also shown on PBS in the United States.<ref name="nalley">Nalley, Richard. "Simon Schama's Power of Art." Forbes 180 (18 September 2007): 165–165. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 30 April 2009).</ref> Template:External media

File:Simon Schama at The Strand by David Shankbone.jpg
Schama at New York City's Strand Bookstore in 2006.

In October 2008, on the eve of the presidential election won by Barack Obama, the BBC broadcast a four-part television series called The American Future: A History presented and written by Schama. In March 2009, Schama presented a BBC Radio 4 show entitled Baseball and Me, both exploring the history of the game and describing his own personal support of the Boston Red Sox.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2010, Schama presented a series of ten talks for the BBC Radio 4 series A Point of View.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:External media In 2011, the BBC commissioned Simon Schama to write and present a five-part series called A History of the Jews for BBC Two, for transmission in 2012,<ref name="BBC AHOTJ 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The title became The Story of the Jews and broadcast was delayed until September 2013.<ref name="BBC progs 2013 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Writing in The Observer, Andrew Anthony called the series "an astonishing achievement, a TV landmark."<ref name="Anthony">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2018, Simon Schama wrote and presented five of the nine episodes of Civilisations, a reboot of the 1969 series by Kenneth Clark.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Schama is Jewish. He is married to Virginia Papaioannou, a geneticist from California; they have two children, Chloe and Gabriel.<ref name="telegraph the american future ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> As of 2014, Schama resides in Briarcliff Manor, New York.<ref name="Briarcliff">Template:Cite news</ref> He is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

PoliticsEdit

In 2010, Schama was a financial donor to Oona King's unsuccessful campaign to become Mayor of London.<ref name="guardian 2012 elections 1">Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2014, Schama was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In November 2017, Schama joined Simon Sebag Montefiore and Howard Jacobson in writing a letter to The Times about their concern over antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, with particular reference to a growth in Anti-Zionism and its purported "antisemitic characteristics". Schama and Sebag Montefiore have both written historical works about Israel, while Jacobson has written regularly about Israel and the UK Jewish community in his newspaper columns.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Schama made a further criticism of the party in July 2019, when he joined other leading Jewish figures in saying, in a letter to The Guardian, that the crisis was "a taint of international and historic shame" and that trust in the party was "fractured beyond repair".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

IsraelEdit

Schama was critical of British art critic John Berger's support for the Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israel. Writing in The Guardian in a 2006 article co-authored with Anthony Julius, Schama compared the open letter written by Berger and signed by 92 other leading artists to Nazi Germany, saying: "This is not the first boycott call directed at Jews. On 1 April 1933, only weeks after he came to power, Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores."<ref name="guardian 2006 boycott 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2006 on the BBC, Schama debated with Vivienne Westwood the morality of Israel's actions in the Israel-Lebanon War.<ref name="bbc2006">Template:Cite news</ref> He described Israel's bombing of Lebanese city centres as unhelpful to Israel's attempt to "get rid of" Hezbollah.<ref name="bbc2006"/> He said: "Of course the spectacle and suffering makes us grieve. Who wouldn't grieve? But it's not enough to do that. We've got to understand. You've even got to understand Israel's point of view."<ref name="bbc2006"/>

United StatesEdit

Schama was a supporter of President Barack Obama<ref name="guardian obama support 1">Template:Cite news</ref> and a critic of George W. Bush.<ref name="guardian bush critic 1">Template:Cite news</ref> He appeared on the BBC's coverage of the 2008 US presidential election, clashing with John Bolton.<ref name="ET 2008 schama PE 1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Reception and appraisalEdit

Niall Ferguson praised Schama, "Amongst [historians] currently writing, Simon Schama stands out as the Dickens of modern historiography: bewilderingly erudite and prolific, passionate in his enthusiasms and armed with the complete contents of the thesaurus."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Prizes and other honoursEdit

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  • 2001: Broadcasting Press Guild Writer's Award, for A History of Britain
  • 2001: Nominated for BAFTA Huw Wheldon Award for Specialised Programme or Series (Arts, History, Religion and Science), for A History of Britain<ref name="Wheldon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2002: Nominated for BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News), for A History of Britain
  • 2003: Nominated for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing Emmy Award for The Two Winstons, an episode of A History of Britain<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2007: Nominated for BAFTA Huw Wheldon Award for Specialised Factual Programme or Series, for Simon Schama's Power of Art
  • 2008: The Daily TelegraphTemplate:'s 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library, for Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
  • 2011: Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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HonoursEdit

Commonwealth honoursEdit

Commonwealth honours
Country Date Appointment Post-nominal letters
Template:Flagu 2001Template:Spaced ndashPresent Commander of the Order of the British Empire CBE
Template:Flagu 2018Template:Spaced ndashPresent Knight Bachelor Kt

ScholasticEdit

University degrees
Location Date School Degree
Template:Flagu 1966 Christ's College, Cambridge Starred First Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History
Chancellor, visitor, governor, rector and fellowships
Location Date School Position
Template:Flagu 1995Template:Spaced ndashPresent Christ's College, Cambridge citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Template:Flagu 12 December 2012Template:NdashPresent Queen Mary University of London citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Template:Flagu 2015Template:Spaced ndash2016 Trinity College, Oxford Visiting Professor of Historiography<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Template:Flagu Brasenose College, Oxford citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

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Honorary degrees
Location Date School Degree Gave Commencement Address
Template:Flagu 20 May 1990 Adelphi University Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 5 November 1999 University of Greenwich Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu October 2002 Memorial University of Newfoundland Doctor of Letters (D.Litt)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 24 May 2003 Bard College citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 21 July 2006 University of Essex Doctor of the University (D.Univ)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 2007 Anglia Ruskin University Doctor of the University (D.Univ)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 2009 Gettysburg College citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 2010 Royal College of Art citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 19 May 2011 Royal Holloway, University of London Doctor of Literature (D.Litt)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||

Template:Flagu 29 March 2015 Weizmann Institute of Science citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> || Yes<ref name="weizmann.ac.il"/>

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Memberships and FellowshipsEdit

Location Date Organisation Position
Template:Flagu 2015Template:Spaced ndashPresent British Academy citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Template:Flagu 2017Template:Spaced ndashPresent Royal Society of Literature Fellow (FRSL)<ref name="thebookseller.com"/>

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AwardsEdit

Location Date Institution Award
Template:Flagu 1977 The American Historical Association The Leo Gershoy Award
  • For his Book "Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780–1813"
  • <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Template:Flagu 1977 The Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson History Prize
  • For his Book "Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780–1813"
  • <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
 CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Template:Flagu 1992 The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature
  • <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
 CitationClass=web

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Template:Flagu 2002 The Historical Association The Medlicott Medal
  • <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Template:Flagu 2015 lang}} The Feltrinelli Prize for History

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BibliographyEdit

Books
Television documentaries
  • Landscape and Memory (1995), in five parts
  • Rembrandt: The Public Eye and the Private Gaze (1995)
  • A History of Britain by Simon Schama – BBC (2000), in 15 parts
  • Murder at Harvard – PBS (2003)
  • Rough Crossings – BBC (2005)
  • Simon Schama's Power of Art – BBC (2006), in eight parts
  • The American Future: A History – BBC (2008), in four parts
  • Simon Schama's John Donne – BBC (2009)
  • Simon Schama's Obama's America – BBC (2009)
  • Simon Schama's Shakespeare – BBC (2012)
  • The Story of the Jews – BBC (2013), in five parts
  • Schama on Rembrandt: Masterpieces of the Late Years – BBC (2014)
  • The Face of Britain by Simon Schama – BBC (2015), in five parts
  • Civilisations – BBC (2018), five of nine parts
  • The Romantics and Us with Simon Schama – BBC (2020) 3 episodes: Passions of the People; The Chambers of the Mind; Tribes <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Simon Schama's History of Now – BBC (2022) 3 episodes: Truth and Democracy; Equality; The Price of Plenty <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • SIMON SCHAMA: THE HOLOCAUST, 80 YEARS ON (2025). PBS.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz. BBC (2025)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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